Delicious
by Sekana Katayama
Summary: Emil, ever a good friend, decides to make a batch of chocolate-chip cookies for Genis and Raine, enlisting the help of... Richter. RichterEmil. Because it had to be done.


Yup yup, I'm still here. Another RichterEmil for you guys, since you appreciate it so much! This one is seriously just a one-shot, more of a fluffy take than I did with my other one. Prepare for some cookie-baking madness.

I wrote this today while I was sick… odd time to be hit by such an idea, really. Not much else to do but fantasize about Richter and Emil when you're laying uselessly in bed, though.

Er… this one is more from Richter's perspective. Odd.

**Disclaimer: **… You know, now that I think about all the shounen-ai hints in the game, it's almost believable that I could own it. But I don't. If I did, the 'best' ending would most definitely involve [SPOILERSlol] Ratatosk taking over Marta's body and Richter and Emil living together in some lovely town like… uh… lovely towns, lovely towns… how 'bout Sybak? Oooh, no, that's no good… Luin? Oops, bad idea. Maybe Izoold – naaahhh… Aha, I've got it! Triet. Yes, Triet.

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**Delicious**

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"¼ teaspoon salt."

"Okay, ¼ teaspoon salt!"

"2 ½ cups flour."

"2 ½ cups of flour, comin' right up!"

"Emil, you don't need to talk to obey instructions."

They were at the home of the Sage siblings at the suggestion of Emil, who had wanted to surprise his new friends by baking cookies while they were out cataloguing monster specimens, and had enlisted the help of… Richter. A completely uninterested Richter who was not at all happy with helping Emil with such a mundane task, having thought that the 'debt' he owed to the young hero would be paid back at some key point where his friend might end up dead without his help. Not by helping him bake cookies.

"O-oh. Right." Emil nodded nervously, growing sadly quiet.

"Never mind, talk if you want." Richter sighed, finger tracing the next instruction on the recipe, pretending he was focused on the baking instead of on his inability to stay annoyed at Emil.

"O-okay!" Emil was already back to his usual self, waiting on his next command. If only.

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"All right, they're ready!" Emil was overly excited over a batch of cookies, waving him over cheerfully and he couldn't resist.

He helped him take the tray of cookies from the Sages' magitechnology baking system and set it down on the bit of counter space available. He watched Emil take out a large plate and then frown.

"Something wrong?" Richter asked, keeping his tone neutral, because he knew it was the best thing to do in this situation, whatever the reason for Emil's sudden solemnity.

"They're too hot to eat." Emil noted aloud, and leaned back against the counter for the moment, disappointed.

"Didn't you expect that?" Richter replied calmly, hoping he could leave once Emil had deemed the cookies satisfactory, because standing here next to the young hero, trying to take interest in a batch of cookies was nearly as exhausting as controlling his urge to-

Emil took a cookie and ate it, and Richter stared as he licked the crumbs from the sides of his mouth with his small, pink tongue. When he didn't stop staring, Emil looked up and noticed the intense look in his eyes, making the most logical conclusion.

"Oh, sorry! I should have given you one first, huh?" He rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed that he had forgotten his manners. Richter was too occupied with controlling himself to chide his young friend for the apology.

He had to force himself to turn away with visible effort. "No, it's fine. We shouldn't waste them."

Emil, puzzled, watched Richter's rigid form worriedly. "Richter…?"

Richter turned back, a little flustered at the amount of unwanted attention he was receiving. "What?"

"It's okay. Go ahead and have one." Emil said gently, and then smiled innocently up at him as if he understood the way the world worked. "There's no need to get all worked up over a cookie!"

"I said I didn't want one." Richter frowned and turned away again, mind working as quickly as possible for a parting line that wasn't too harsh, but didn't sound like he cared too much –

Emil tried again more carefully, hands clasped behind him in a way that made him too adorable to ignore, and effectively ruined Richter's plan to leave at that moment. "We can always make more. It doesn't matt-"

"I do _not_ want a cookie, all right!?" Richter spun around, furious at both the foiling of his plan and the overload of cuteness presented to his unprepared eyes. "I don't even like cookies!"

"O-oh, okay." Emil looked hurt for a moment, before struggling to put up a cheerful front. "But then… why are you getting all upset?"

"I'm not getting upset!" Richter defended, flushing slightly despite his normally iron-grip on his emotions.

Emil stepped closer, hesitant because of his friend's anger, and timidly put a hand on Richter's arm. Richter froze, looking down at Emil with an unreadable expression. Wide, bright green eyes stared up into his, and he had to blink to clear his thoughts.

"Richter? Are you okay?" Concerned eyes wanting to comfort him.

"No!" Richter snapped, and then amended hastily, "I mean yes. Yes, I'm fine."

Emil's worried eyes made him look despite his resolve not to, and he realized how close they were, how little distance between, how easy it would be to make up the scant few inches and – no!

"Why are you standing so close to me!?" He growled, holding himself back from the inevitable. If he had known they would be alone, with the scent of freshly-baked chocolate-chip cookies in the background, he never would have agreed to this. Although, what he had been imagining wasn't much different.

"Ah, s-sorry!" Emil moved away, frightened at his outburst.

Richter sighed, defeated once again. "No, it's – do what you want."

"I just… want to see you happy, Richter." Emil's eyes were downcast, and he was fighting to keep up a weak smile that continually slipped into a pathetic little frown, as if on the verge of tears.

Richter couldn't take it anymore, so he took a cookie off the plate and began to eat it. Emil glanced up immediately at the telltale crunching noises and brightened. It was too easy, gaining his trust again. He finished the cookie and their relationship was whole once more.

"Happy now?" He didn't want to sound like he cared, after all, about Emil's feelings. He was treading on thin ice as it was, trying to avoid making a mistake they would both regret. And Emil was not making it easy trying to hold back his emotions.

Emil tripped him with a counter-question. "Are you?"

"Hmmph." He folded his arms defensively. "Why would I be happy?" He hadn't meant to sound like he needed comforting…

"Well, I thought it was something you wanted, so you'd be happy when you got it." Emil tapped his cheek thoughtfully, hope fading from his expression.

"Emil… sometimes it's not as easy as eating a cookie and _hoping_ you can make more." Richter attempted the metaphorical explanation, knowing that Emil would not fully grasp the idea but wishing desperately that there was some way for him to set an example out so his friend would understand to some degree.

"What? I… don't understand." Emil debunked his explanation with a single fact. "You _can _always make more."

"Well… I don't know, you could run out of ingredients or something." Grasping at any idea that came his way, he ended up sounding incredibly stupid.

Emil laughed at him, making everything so much more humiliating. "That doesn't make sense!"

"Because I'm not talking about a cookie, damn it!" Richter's frustration blasted through his attempt at keeping it locked up. That wasn't supposed to happen! He wasn't going to let Emil onto the idea that he was trying to explain something far more important than a cookie…!

Emil, startled, tried to figure out his meaning, sensing that this was something valuable in understanding Richter. "Then what are you – oh, there must be something else you want?" He looked around as if the object in question was somewhere close by.

"Not everything's simple, Emil." Richter huffed, observing the blonde's curious search of their surroundings. He leaned back against the counter, wondering why he hadn't just left yet and made things easier on both of them.

He was truly stunned the next moment when Emil confronted him in an uncharacteristically courageous way, coming to stand right in front of him with as much bravery as he could muster. "It can be! Why don't you just tell me what it is? Then I could help you get it!"

Richter hesitated, told himself not to cringe at the thought of revealing his secret, Emil pushing him away, the disappearance of the only person who had accepted him since…

"C'mon, go ahead!" Emil challenged. "Are you a man, or a dog?"

Those eyes, full of righteous fire, that smile that had him trying to make up for all his angry outbursts, that Emil. It was too much now, there was no way to avoid it, to brush it off, besides leaving. And that would hurt Emil, maybe even more than telling him would, if that was even possible.

"You want me… to tell you what I want?" He couldn't stop it now, he moved closer to Emil, whose eyes became wider with each step he took.

"Y-yeah." Emil, though intimidated, tried his best to keep his mask of toughness on.

"How about I show you?" Richter murmured, very close now, placing a warning hand on that bared, slender shoulder. A warning that Emil did not comprehend.

Emil blushed at their closeness, but, oblivious as always, only said, "S-sure, let me get some paper – mmph!"

He claimed those soft, pink lips with a kind of recklessness, tasting a faint hint of chocolate and cookie on Emil's mouth, spurred to finish what he had started, pressing his mouth hard against his.

When he drew back, his shortness of breath was the last thing on his mind as he watched Emil panting, wide-eyed. "There, do you get it now?"

Emil took a few, tense moments to regain his breath, and donned his familiar, puzzled expression. "S-so, am I a cookie?"

"What?" Richter dearly hoped the hero wasn't still under the impression that the cookie was what he was after, because he couldn't give the boy a clearer hint that he just had. Well, he could, only… that would be going a bit far.

"What you were saying earlier," Emil recalled, seeming to realize the implications of their recent discussion. "Am I like a cookie to you?"

Richter tamed his frustration by throwing Emil an odd question instead of replying. "How would you describe a cookie, Emil?"

"Uh… delicious?" Emil looked sheepish at his lack of descriptive vocabulary, but that suited Richter just fine.

"Then yes." He replied simply.

"'Yes' what?" Emil's head tilted to one side in the same way a puppy's often did. It was something Richter could never believe someone would do out of habit because it looked so… deliberately… cute…

"I'm not going to say it." He refused stubbornly, knowing that if he ever told Emil 'yes, you are like a cookie to me,' all bets were off as to what would happen. Actually, Emil would probably take it as a strange compliment.

"Huh?"

"Forget it." Richter paused then, blushing lightly. "Can I… have another cookie?"

"Of course!" Emil complied eagerly, handing him a cookie off the plate.

Richter sighed, seeing Emil happily offering him the cookie. "That's not what I meant." But he ate it anyway.

Just when he had finished, Emil leaned close to him, standing on the tips of his toes, delicate hands pressed to his chest to help him keep his balance. "You've got chocolate – wait, right… there." And a delicate tongue licked the wayward chocolate from the side of his mouth.

Richter was flabbergasted.

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**One-shot means one-shot, guys! Hope you enjoyed it!**


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